Clamp for clotheslines and the like



July 20, 1937. v. WIEDERHOLT CLAMP FOR CLOTHESLINES AND THE LIKE Filed March 18, 1936 2 Sheets-Sheet l July '20, 1937. v. WIEDERHOLT 2,087,420

CLAMP FOR CLOTHESLINES AND THE LIKE Filed March 18, 1936 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented July 20, 1937 UNETED STATS ATEN'i Fries Application March 18, 1936, Serial No. 69,601 In Great Britain 2 Claims.

This invention relates to means for attaching ropes, cords, or wires, to poles or other supports, and has for its object to provide a simple and efiicient construction of device for clamping disconnectibly a rope or cord, such as a clothesline, to a post.

According to the invention the device consists of a member adapted to be fastened to a pole or the like, from which member a number of wedgeshaped notched flanges or walls having wedgeshaped guide notches for the clothesline project vertically, and between said flanges or walls a hand lever is rotatably mounted, which is adapted to clamp the clothesline against the rounded edges of the Wedge-shaped notches and is controlled by a pawl and ratchet device. The clothesline is therefore clamped by simply depressing the hand lever. In addition to simplicity of manipulation and certainty of action, the device possesses the further advantage that it may be employed for ropes, cords or clotheslines of difierent diameters.

Two embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the clamping device showing the hand lever in two positions,

Fig. 2 is a plan View of Fig. 1 showing the hand lever in the clamping position,

Fig. 3 is an elevation taken from the right side of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a side elevation, partly in section on the line il of Fig. 6 and illustrating a modified form of the invention, the hand lever used herewith being shown in one position in full lines and in a second position in broken lines.

Fig. 5 is a front elevation of Fig. 4, with the hand lever in section, and

Fig. 6 is a plan view of Fig. 4 in which the hand lever is shown in the clamping position.

The device consists of a casting a of rounded profile, the under portion of which is formed as a socket, so that it may for example be pushed on to a tube 0. The casting may however be fastened to a wood pole with the aid of a pointed angle pin (1 which is inserted into the lower part a of the casting. Two vertical flanges or walls 21, 12 project from the lower part of the casting a, as shown in Figs. 1-3, which flanges or walls are provided at the top with wedge-shaped notches g and are separated by a slot or gap 1. The wedge-shaped notch g which serves to guide the rope or cord 71. has its wall rounded at the base, the projecting edges b of the walls 2) being rounded as shown in Fig. 2. A hand lever 7, the shorter arm Ic of which is rounded on the upper side to enable it to grip the rope h is rotatably mounted by means of a bolt 2' between the walls I), b. The hand lever 11' is further provided on its upper edge with a curved ratchet m with which a pawl 0 engages, which is rotatably mounted by means of the pin n on the walls I), b.

In the position of rest the lever 3i assumes the position shown by the continuous line in Fig. 1. If the rope h is to be stretched tight the lever y is depressed whilst the pawl 0 slides over the teeth m and retains the lever in the clamped position. This clamped position is indicated in Fig. 1 by the dot-and-dash line and in Fig. 2

which indicates how the rope it can be clamped between the lever arm is and the edges N.

In the embodiment illustrated in Figs. 4-6 the casting a is provided with three vertical flanges or walls I), b and the hand lever 7' is forked and provided with two parallel arms k and 762 of which only the arm k is provided on the upper side with ratchet teeth m. In this embodiment of the device the rope h is clamped in an undulatory form as shown in Fig. 6 so that the clamping effect is increased.

I claim:

1. A clamp for clotheslines and the like, including a base portion, a plurality of walls extending upwardly from said base, said walls being spaced in substantially parallel relation, said walls being provided with substantially V-shaped notches extending downwardly from their tops, pivot means extending through said walls, a lever pivoted on said means and movable between said walls to grip a clothesline in said notches, said lever having a handle portion at one end and being provided with a ratchet toothed arcuate portion substantially concentric to said pivot means, and a pawl pivoted to said walls and engaging said ratchet toothed portion.

2. A clamp for clotheslines and the like, including a base portion, a plurality of walls extending upwardly from said base, said walls being spaced in substantially parallel relation, said walls being provided with substantially V-shaped notches extending downwardly from their tops, pivot means extending through said walls, a lever pivoted on said means and movable between said walls to grip a clothesline in said notches, said lever having a handle portion at one end and being provided with a ratchet toothed arcuate portion substantially concentric to said pivot means, and a pawl pivoted to at least one of said walls and engaging said ratchet toothed portion, each wall being undercut at the apex of the V and the lever being concavely curved to cooperate with the said undercut sides in gripping a clothesline.

VINCENZ WIEDERHOLT. 

